My journey with mindfulness began before I was even aware of the term referring to practices which serve to center and bring us into the present moment. Though I'd previously heard about doing things mindfully--like reminders from Leslie Sansone on my favorite walking workout DVDs to pay attention to our muscles and the exercises we were doing with them to make the workout more effective--I had not heard of "mindfulness" as a stand-alone concept. In that regard, I was living in the dark. Although I didn't call it mindfulness, however, I experienced first-hand some of the benefits of bringing my awareness to the present moment at a beginning-of-the-school-year faculty meeting. If you've considered the title of this post, you might be asking yourself if I've made some mistake: moment of fun at a faculty meeting? Yes, indeed!
Our principal at the time led us in a beach ball activity. While exploring the idea of playfulness as a way to increase student engagement and motivation, she had us do just that: play! The activity, in which we simply stood in a circle outside, bouncing a beach ball among us while listening to a "beachy" tune on our principal's phone, taught me an important life lesson. At the time, I had been dreading the back-to-school routine. It wasn't that I didn't feel the usual eager excitement of the rapidly-approaching fresh beginning of a new school year; rather, I simply felt overwhelmed. Concerns from the home front wore heavily on me. My daughter was entering her 7th grade school year, which turned out to be her most challenging yet, and while not feeling well physically, she was nervous about the return to school and her anxiety was showing up in difficult behaviors at home. Additionally, a week or so earlier, my father had fallen, breaking several bones in his ankle and foot. He needed extensive reconstructive surgery and faced a long road of recovery ahead, being unable to put any weight on his foot for at least 8 weeks. For an older gentleman who already had trouble getting around due to other hip, back, and neck issues, that was not going to be easy. And this was all occurring as part of one multi-generational household...my concerns about my anxious daughter and my practically immobile father were weighing on me, and everyone in the household was affected. Needless-to-say, I felt unprepared and unfocused, professionally, as the first day of school approached. But then our principal had us go outside and play, inviting us to rekindle the joy in our everyday lives. The lesson I learned, as I wrote later in reflection, was "Be fully present in the moment as you watch that beach ball flying across the circle--after all, you never know when it will be flying in your direction--and accept yourself, beauty, dents, and all, and work with where you are, whether you drop the beach ball, send it soaring across the sky, or get bonked in the head...accept it, work with it, and seek the joy." What a fitting and poignant life lesson for me in that moment! Though it wasn't a moment of quiet meditation, I see that experience as the initial step of my explicit journey with mindfulness, as the lesson learned that day led me to readings on growth mindset, which led me to readings on mindfulness, where the journey--with mindfulness finally named as such--officially began only a few months later. My moment of mindfulness that morning both refreshed and rejuvenated me. I was subsequently able to focus on the topics of our faculty meeting and professional development that day and left school that afternoon feeling inspired and ready for the year ahead. What a powerful shift from the views and feelings of the early morning. By being encouraged to focus fully on the present through play, I was able to do just that, and what a liberating feeling it was! As Lao Zi writes (as translated by Ju Yanan), "A giant tree grows out of a tiny sprout. A nine-story tower rises from a basket of earth. A thousand-li journey begins with the first step." Where did your journey with mindfulness begin? Have you had the chance to stop and reflect on your journey's first steps? I invite you to do so, if you haven't already, and encourage you to share the story of your journey with others. Reflectively, LAH
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